Holiday lift- Chest and a little shoulders on Martin Luther King day

Chest, In and out with two solid lifting partners- Andrew Lewis and Jon Zervos.

Flat bench
135x12
185x10
225x10
275x4

shoot'n for sets of 6
315 2x6
305 1x5
295 1x6

Db incline... bench set on setting 3
95's
1x10
1x7
get stupid set- AMAP superset
1x8
45's 1x6 or 7, lost count
knocked the bench down a setting
45's for 1x6
the weight felt weird because it was so light, but my muscles wouldn't push. like being a newbie again

downward cable flies
4x8

cable shoulder complex - 2 sets each
straight bar front raise- 8 reps
cable lateral raises- 10 reps
DB reverse flies- 12 reps

Shoulders, tri's and a jog

after legs yesterday I woke up with a knot in my groin... not guna set any records today on cardio.

Seated barbell shoulder press
135x12
185x6
235
1x6
1x3
225 1x6 then 135 1x12

DB side raises
30's 1x10
35's 1x8
40's 1x8

*supersetted with
Cable straight bar front raises - leaned against machine to take out any upper-body rocking
80 1x12
90 1x10
100 1x6

face pulls
140 1x12
130 1x12
120 1x12

*supersetted with
rope tricep pushdown
140 1x15
130 1x15
120 1x15

narrow grip bench
135 1x12
225 2x8

foam rolled quads, glute medius, IT band, adductors, groin, upper and lower back

Jog
5 minutes at 6.5mph
5 minutes at 6mph
3 minute walk at 3.5mph at 7% incline
7 minutes at 6mph
2 minute walk at 3mph at 9% incline

i felt bad for the treadmill, 233 was thudd'n on it

barbell shrugs
225 1x12
315 1x15

static stretched, straight leg stretches weren't too bad, but squat stretch made me feel my leg fatigue. good day, not great

Shoulders and Traps- 1.7.10

Seated shoulder press
135x12
185x6
*230 1x6,1x5
225 1x6,1x5
*215 1x8

superset above with * with standing shoulder press 95lbs
after each of 2 sets of 230 2x8
after set of 215 1x10

Superset 2
cable side lateral- I use a velcro wrist band sometimes to really target the medial deltoid, i feel a difference when taking out the wrist joint
60 1x10
70 3x8

DB rear raises, bent over
1x25's
3x30's

rest-pause machine shoulder press- these were terrible
3 sets of 7 reps, 10 breaths rest, try for 7 reps, 10 breaths rest, try for 7 reps

Superset 3
seated DB lateral raises
3x12 with 30's

standing lateral raises- went really heavy and did half reps to maximally contract the delts with strict form

trap work *no straps
barbell shrugs
*135x12
*225x8
*275x6
*315 2x6
*315 1x10 faster
365 1x6

Seated Shoulder Press... prove'n the haters wrong

first set of four sets, going for 6 reps. seems fresh bc it was the first set

Shoulders and Triceps

Barbell shoulder press
135x6
185x6
220x 6,6,4
210x 6

Cable lateral raises
50 2x10
55 1x10
Lying Incline Rear Raises
20's 3x10

Machine Shoulder Press
162.5 2x8
175 2x8

Straight Bar front raise
80 1x10
100 2x6
90 1x6

Isometric Cable Cross- video below- low quality, with phone
2x55lbs each for 20 seconds

STTB.com thanks

Thanks to Scott Bird and every one that came out to talk squat on last night's twitter chat. You can find a recap here. Check out the forums at http://www.straighttothebar.com/ , there are tons of videos, articles, and topics that you can learn from and comment about.

My workout today:
warm up
DB shoulder press
*only set standing 65's x 10
90's x 6
95's 2x6

superset 1
lateral cable raise 40 2x12 50 3x 12 60 2x6
straight bar front raise 80 6x8

superset 2
face pulls 140 2x12 130 2x12
rope tricep pushdown (easy on cable) 120 4x12

superset 3
bodyweight dips 3x12
straight bar pushdowns 75 3x12

let me know what you did today in the comments, be easy...
enjoy the weekend.

Exercises I don't like... Vol 1

I am going to try to have one of these a month and am open to any suggestions of exercises at any time. I have told my personal training staff that if they ever read, see, hear about, or make up in their mind a "new" exercise, we can go over it and I would tell them if I thought it was worth anything or not. I will be watching for and going over exercises that I don't like and my reasons... rarely will I ever not like an exercise without any reason whatsoever... take from it what you want.

Behind the Neck Shoulder Press (BNSP)
This exercise is pretty popular in bodybuilding pics and magazines. You almost always see a huge guy with all kinds of vascularity in his shoulders pushing heavy weight from behind his neck to above his head. I realize these guys have diesel shoulders that make doorways always look too narrow.
BUT if you want to build up your shoulders, you need to focus on barbell shoulder press (in front of your face), dumbell shoulder press, straight arms raises, arnold press, and hit your other pressing movements, like those that involve your chest, hard. I am against BNSP because it is not a natural range of motion for the body to bring heavy weight behind the head while not keeping a neutral spine (i.e. ducking your head).

For beginners that have a low sense of proprioception (knowing what position your body is in without having to look and see it), moving a loaded barbell behind their head adds a huge risk to having them drill their cervical spine with the bar. Even with an experienced lifter, if you are pushing with all you have and miss a barbell shoulder press in front of your face (assuming your spotter blows), you can bring it down to your chest or rest it on your anterior delts like a front squat. If you miss a rep on BNSP and your spotter blows you aren't going to be able to sit far enough up fast enough to let it land on your traps like a back squat... the weight it going to hit your neck!

There are a ton of other shoulder exercises to hit that will give you the same gerthiness (said like EARTH-iness but with a GUH) and turn those shoulders into boulders without the risk of injury to your spine. Let me know what you think in the comments and go get huge(r).